Archive for the ‘Presentation skills’ Category

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Warm up is vital to audience engagement

Monday, October 4th, 2010
warm-up-is-vital-to-audience-engagement

We know that warm-up is a vital part of preparation for sport. Before a game we need to get the heart pumping, warm the muscles we will need to use and get the body ready to make unusual movements like twisting or jumping.

So too do audiences need to be warmed up to whatever we want to communicate.The audience is always warmed up to something, but unless we are aware of the warm-up process they may not be mentally in the right place.  As they arrive, whilte some maybe very keen to listen, others might not want to be there, or expect that the presentation will be too hard for them to understand. To get them warmed up you will need to establish your credentials on the subject fairly early on.  You may want to show them that it is easier than they thought to understand this difficult subject. 

This concept is closely related to the general idea of audience engagement and here are soem tips on that from TechRepublic. 

It is also a bit different: Each time you need to audience to shift what they are thinking about or doing, you need to plan carefully how you will get them make that shift. For example:

  • If you want them to buy your suggested solution, make sure you warm them up to the pain of the problem it solves. 
  • If you need them to give you their views on how some change will work, make sure you explain how it will look in practice and be welcoming of dissent.

Audiences are a little different to sports players because they are really always warmed up to something.  Make sure you control where that warm-up is heading. Don’t go off on a tangent or they will warm-up in the wrong direction. In short, don’t jump them, or confuse them!

Posted in Leadership, Personal Presence, Presentation skills, Public Speaking, Speeches | No Comments »

The key to presence is being present

Friday, September 10th, 2010
the-key-to-presence-is-being-present

A common issue for our coaching clients in the past year has been the challenge of increasing the impact of their personal presence. Their  questions are often: ‘What is this ‘presence’  thing and how do I get more of it?’

While everyone needs to be aware of their personal presence, as we take on more influential leadership roles, we  need to be even  more conscious of establishing our presence.

 The key to it is simple…..or is it?

Seek first to understand

The message isn’t new:  Great personal presence requires us first to simply be present to others – by listening to them very carefully. Steven Covey sums it up well with his quote: ‘Seek first to understand before being understood.’

This seems very straightforward, but most of us tend to go into conversations focused much more on our own point of view – what we find interesting, what we want to talk about and so on.  This approach certainly establishes presence, but of the wrong sort!  To develop a strong positive presence, we need to focus first on understanding where the other person is coming from in the conversation.  

 Active listening is the key communication tool for keeping ourselves present.  There’s a challenge though, because while listening appears to be simple, it isn’t often easy.  The process requires commitment and real discipline of our conscious thought. Sometimes we have to keep repeating to ourselves: ‘I really want to listen to this person.’  When we manage to focus in this way, we are truly present. There is a very powerful story that captures the magic of this combination in The Power of Presence and Listening: A Fellow’s Narrative by Musharraf Navaid MD, in the Journal of Palliative Medicine.

Posted in Communication Tips, Community involvement, Effective Meetings, Leadership, Negotiation Skills, Personal Presence, Presentation skills, Public Speaking, Relationship Management, Speeches | No Comments »

Look effective when introducing a panel of speakers

Monday, August 30th, 2010
look-effective-when-introducing-a-panel-of-speakers

Do you sometimes need to introduce a panel of speakers?  Many of our clients need to do this when bidding for some work, or when convening a panel of speakers at a conference. Ellen Finkelstein’s newsletter last week included a polished and simple way of doing this by using PowerPoint .

Aside from images providing faces and names, briefly explain why each person is included in the panel. Each panel member’s expertise needs to clearly add something special to the occasion and to fit with the whole.   As you introduce each person,you explain why Person B follows Person A and so on. In your introduction make sure you answer the following questions:

  1. Why we are covering this specific subject, as part of the whole presentation?
  2. Why we are covering this aspect now?

If you would like some more tips on other aspects of leading or convening a panel, there are some useful ones in Presentation Pointers

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Stepping outside your comfort zone isn’t easy

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010
stepping-outside-your-comfort-zone-isnt-easy

I have recently joined (as have hundreds around the world) a ukulele group. We are all enthusiastic and love the experience of communal music.  However I am not that skilled having never played a stringed instrument in my life ,even if the uke is one of the simplest to learn.

I also have the added problem (or excuse) that I’m left handed so I have had my uke altered to make it easier for me to play.

Here is the problem-the rest of the group look at each others fingers (you need to trust me here it is part of the learning!) to help them keep up with the new chords we learn each time we meet.  It doesn’t make sense to me as mine is really upside down and back to front.  Needless to say I am persisting and sort of managing to keep up.

The better player in out group has suggested (well told me really) to  ”Not look where you put your fingers on the chords but just go with the music.”     “What !” I replied, “I have to see where they go…”   .

It was one of those moments when I realised what we ask our participants to do when we are coaching  and training them in presentations.  “Put down your notes”.  “You will be fine without them” .”You know your stuff” etc etc.

How difficult it is to lose the ability to check and check again. Yes it interrupts the flow but it makes us feel better…even though I know it will sound better when I don’t peek.

How often do we as adults seek the comfort of what feels easier and safe?   To grow and succeed we do need to leave our comfort zone and take the big step of trusting to do what we know will make a difference.

So next week with the group I will endeavour not to look …it will take masses of practice at home, a lot of big breaths, but if we are going to be the best little band in Wadestown I will need to grow with the others and step outside my comfort zone.

Stay tuned for the next chapter…

Posted in Communication Tips, Community involvement, Conflict Resolution, Presentation skills | No Comments »

Is your audience really listening?

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010
is-your-audience-really-listening

The Executive Speaking Blog came up with an interesting post recently: Can you tell whether people are really listening to the boss?  Sounds like a good game: Keep the score for audience reaction to the boss’ presentations!

We often get asked the broader question: How can you assess audience’s reaction? There are the obvious responses of people falling asleep, looking angry, or walking out. But what about the more subtle responses? Usually if people are fidgeting or looking down most of the time, they are bored.

It can be hard to tell. In smaller centres in NZ, often audiences don’t interact much, but will stay on to discuss things  afterwards. In bigger cities, they may interact so much that you think you have made a whole lot of NBFF; then as soon as you finish, they leave!

Individuals within an audience may have unusual reactions.  Recently a client told me about a presenter who just used slides, each containing a great deal of information.  The presentation involved the audience reading them. Sounded tedious to me, but my informant said the presentation was fascinating, because of the interesting slide content. 

It is very difficult for a presenter to accurately read audience reaction.   You might think the whole thing was a disaster because you missed an important point, yet the audience may have liked it. At other times some of the audience may have looked grumpy and yet come up afterwards to say they thought it was great.

Some tips:

  1. Ask someone before your presentation to give you feedback afterwards on the level of audience engagement.
  2. Know your material very well, so you can stay mentally free enough to focus on audience reaction. 
  3. If what you are doing is boring your audience, change it!

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How important is getting the right word right when we speak?

Thursday, July 22nd, 2010
how-important-is-getting-the-right-word-right-when-we-speak

I was recently reading a post in the Guardian newspaper about Sarah Palin’s malapropisms and how recently prominent US politicians have had a case of foot in mouth.

As we all know, communication can be a movable feast, albeit with one’s foot in one’s mouth. However isn’t the message the sum of the parts?

For example, parents know their  children can get their message across quite succinctly when they need to, without using the whole Thesaurus.  Mind you, the communication can collapse when the message from the parent falls on deaf ears.

In our experience the emotion behind the message and the emotion of the recipient is essential for effective communication.

 If you are sitting listening to someone eloquently drone on in a bored “I’ve said this many times before” voice,  as a listener you quickly tune out. On the other hand if you are listening to some one who is passionate about their topic, even though  they get the odd word muddled, we still  ’get it’.

Of course all this depends on how the receiver prefers their messages…there is always the odd one who is happy with the bore as long as their PowerPoint presentation is full of obscure interesting research which they can read and then tune out.

Thank goodness for people with passion!

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Audience engagement

Monday, June 7th, 2010
audience-engagement

Coffee with my friend Lesley Moffatt is always stimulating. Last year she recommended this excellent book: Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath. I have been suggesting it to anyone who asks about audience engagement. 

Made to Stick

The authors are brothers.  Chip is a Stanford professor who researched and taught what made ideas stick.   Dan worked in the field of educational publishing and thus need to find out what makes great teachers great.  They realised they had both been focused on the same question: Why do some ideas succeed while others fail?

The result of their work is their book ‘Made to Stick’ and the ideas are enormously useful for presenting as well as many other fields. They have a blog at: Heath Brothers

They pin down six key principles of ’stickability’ and every single one is relevant to making your presentation engaging:

  1. Simplicity: We need ideas that are simple but also profound – this is why the Tui ‘Yeah Right’ ads caught on so well.
  2. Unexpectedness: We need to generate interest and curiosity: The Air New Zealand body paint ads are a case in point!
  3. Concreteness:Ideas need to be conveyed in very concrete terms so they mean the same thing to everyone.  The concreteness gives us a hook to hang the ideas on. Years ago I was very thrilled that my son’s general knowledge when I discovered he knew the capitals of nearly all the states in the US.  It was only later I realised that actually he knew all the ones that had good basketball teams, but  none of the others! The concrete fact of basketball enabled him to easily memorise the city names.
  4. Credibility: People must believe the idea. Sticky ideas are credible, but people don’t like lots of facts.  Something that appeals to our idea of common sense seems to work well, even if  it is wrong!  Fears about the risks of vaccination fall into this category.
  5. Emotions: We must get people to care about our ideas.Obama’s presidential nomination speech tapped into an emotional surge of hope with the famous lines: ‘Yes we can!’
  6. Stories: We need to get people to act on our ideas. Stories get us prepared to respond quickly and effectively. Stories are a major source of motivation for people in every walk of life. Stories can do 1-5 above as well as #6!

By the way, if you are on a school board, Lesley Moffatt provides excellent training and consultation for people working on school and other community boards. She has a blog at: Onboard with Lesley Moffatt

Posted in Communication Tips, Leadership, Personal Presence, Presentation skills, Public Speaking, Speeches | No Comments »

Presenting without using PowerPoint

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010
presenting-without-using-powerpoint

People sometimes ask me if it is possible to present effectively without using slides. Of course the answer is:’Absolutely yes!’ If you want to look at an excellent example of ‘Absolutely yes’ that has interesting content as well, look at the video I have included below. Simon Sinek’s presentation is titled: How Great Leaders Inspire’. As you watch keep in mind that he would have practised this presentation many times before.

I found this link via Ellen Finklestein’s useful PowerPoint Tips blog

Posted in Leadership, Presentation skills, Public Speaking, Speeches | 2 Comments »

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